Pradhan Urges Banks To Scale Up Loan Disbursement Under MUDRA Scheme

Bhubaneswar: Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Tuesday urged the public sector banks, regional rural banks and private banks to scale up the disbursement of small loans under MUDRA scheme to poor, youth and women entrepreneurs in neglected area of Odisha.

While reviewing the progress of implementation of MUDRA scheme in the state, Pradhan lamented the dismal performance of banks in disbursing small loans in comparison to Micro Credit Institutions (MFI) and NBFCs in the state.

He said, the banks are only disbursing 35% small loans to poor entrepreneurs.

Pradhan has called upon the banks to raise the flow of credit to these people from the present 35% to at least 45% in the current 2016-17 financial year.

It was informed in the review meeting that the small loans up to Rs. 10 Lakh is being disbursed under MUDRA scheme to interested poor entrepreneurs.

In 2015-16, the MUDRA loan disbursement was Rs. 5436 crore against the target of Rs. 4011 crore. Around 23.43 lakh beneficiaries have taken loan under the schemes viz. SISHU, KISHORE, TARUN segments in MUDRA Yojana during this period. However, the target for the current 2016-17 is fixed at Rs. 7203 crore. Out of this 40% have been disbursed so far.

The Union Minister urged the banks to provide at least 30 lakh beneficiaries MUDRA loan in the current fiscal. He also asked the banks to train at least 5 lakh youth, women and poor entrepreneurs this year under various training programmes in their Rural Self Employment Training Institute (RSETI).

Pradhan said that PM India Web Page is available in several regional languages. So the PSBs and RRBs should create their own Odia Portal to make the poor and interested small entrepreneurs from MSME Sector aware of MUDRA Schemes.

The State Bank of India (SBI) – the leading bank in Odisha should be a torch bearer in this field.

Even more and more banking correspondence should be deployed in rural pockets and unbankable areas to create awareness and sensitize rural folk about MUDRA Scheme. This will help expand financial inclusion in several parts of the state. It is informed in the review meeting that, 5073 banking correspondent have been deployed by the PSB banks in the state as against the current requirement of 5260.

Petroleum Minister said that Khurdha, Ganjam, Cuttack, Puri, Mayurbhanj are some of the leading districts in MUDRA loan disbursements. Khurdha district alone disbursed Rs. 300 crore small loans under MUDRA Scheme in 2015-16 financial year. He said that banks were asked to expand their small loan disbursement in tribal dominated pockets such as Kalahandi & Kandhamal.

Representatives from all public sector banks, regional rural banks, private banks, NABARD and the Joint-Secretary, Financial Services in the Ministry of Finance have attended the review meeting held in Bhubaneswar on Tuesday.